Man cited for address painting scheme

A man was cited and released Wednesday for allegedly posing as a safety worker endorsed by the Roseville Fire Department.
According to Jeff Carman, assistant chief of operations with the Roseville Fire Department, the man was dressed in an orange safety vest and going door to door telling people the fire department was endorsing him to paint address numbers on the curb.
According to a press release, the Roseville Fire Department recommends that citizens makes their home and business addresses as visible as possible, but it does not endorse door-to-door business practices like this.
“This scam seems to come up every three or four years,” Carman said.
Carman said the man had a handout from Metro Fire talking about how important it was to be visible from the street.
“At one point he actually went on to say that he would inspect fire extinguishers while he was there … for a fee,” Carman said. “To the untrained eye, he would have seemed pretty legit.”
Carman said the man, who was contacted and cited by Roseville police about an hour after he was reported, was going door to door in the neighborhoods near Foothills Boulevard and Vineyard Road.
“He was cited and basically told to get out of town,” Carman said.
Roseville police have not released the name of the man.
The Roseville Fire Department urges citizens who were perhaps solicited by this person to contact the fire department and report the event.
All Roseville Fire Department employees are required to be in uniform when addressing the public and will always have a valid city identification card in their possession, the press release states.
Roseville fire urges the public to call its business office at (916) 774-5800 if there is ever any doubt if someone is affiliated with the fire department, or if the fire department endorses a program.
Toby Lewis can be reached at tobyl@goldcountrymedia.com.